Marshfield Advisory Board recommends $47.1M school budget

MARSHFIELD – The town’s advisory board has voted to recommend a school budget $800,000 higher larger than the one the town administrator recommends.

The board said the $47.11 million school budget it favors would fully cover the school department’s contractual obligations.

“We’re not looking for the school to lay off people,” Chairman Keith Polansky said. “The advisory board tries to protect the whole town.”

The school system’s assistant superintendent of business and finance, Tom Miller said, “We’re very grateful for that number. It gets us to the point where we can cover our contracts.”

The school department originally requested $48.29 million, which would include additional staff and resources for the schools on all levels. Town officials brought the figure down to $46.3 million, which would not cover all of the contractual salary increases for school employees.

“We’ve done the best we can. It’s not personal,” Town Administrator Rocco Longo said.

Longo proposed a municipal budget of $91.4 million, $3 million less than the department heads requested.

“It’s been very challenging with the limited resources,” town Treasurer/Collector Patrick Dello Russo said.

School committee member Carol Shrand said she understands that it’s a difficult budget year, but doesn’t understand how the school budget could have been cut so severely.

“I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s such a huge discrepancy,” she said. “My jaw’s on the floor.”

She added that the town has always tried not to pit departments against each other.

“The spirit we’ve always promoted is that we are one town, and it’s not one department over another,” she said.

“I hope that hasn’t changed,” Longo said. “It’s not easy for any side this year.”

While the advisory board doesn’t need to recommend where the additional money would come from, Polansky said they did recommend that $500,000 comes from the stabilization fund – to be replenished with free cash next fall – and $300,000 from overlay surplus.

Despite what the advisory board votes, the decision still has to be approved by selectmen and ultimately the town, Polansky said.

The advisory board and selectmen will hold a joint meeting at 7 p.m. next Tuesday, March 28, at the Furnace Brook Middle School.